NYT: Trump's Erratic Behavior Revives Mental Fitness Debate — Even MAGA Is Saying It

On April 13, 2026, New York Times Chief White House Correspondent Peter Baker published a lead feature — "Trump's Erratic Behavior and Extreme Comments Revive Mental Health Debate" — that did what the paper has spent a decade avoiding. It treated the question of the president's psychological fitness as a news story, not a partisan talking point.

The trigger events Baker cataloged:

• "A whole civilization will die tonight" — the April 7 genocide threat against Iran
• "Open the Fuckin' Strait, you crazy bastards — Praise be to Allah" — Easter Sunday
• Calling the Pope "WEAK on Crime" and "terrible for Foreign Policy"
• Posting an AI image of himself as Jesus Christ and claiming it was "me as a doctor"
• A 1 AM rant at the Supreme Court telling them to watch Fox News
• A midnight Truth Social meltdown ordering U.S. troops to remain in the Middle East
• Claiming credit for Pope Leo's papacy: "If I wasn't in the White House, Leo wouldn't be in the Vatican"

Baker's framing, quoted from the piece:

"[has] left many with the impression of a deranged autocrat mad with power"

The reporting's most damning element is who is now saying this publicly. The concern has broken out of the Democratic / Never-Trump bubble and is being voiced by people who built their careers in his movement:

• Marjorie Taylor Greene — has called for invoking the 25th Amendment
• Candace Owens — same
• Alex Jones — same
• Ty Cobb — Trump's former White House lawyer, publicly questioning his mental state
• Stephanie Grisham — former Trump Press Secretary, raising concerns

MTG, Owens, and Jones are not establishment critics. They were the base. When the people who spent years calling every mental-fitness concern "fake news" are the ones now demanding removal via the 25th Amendment, the question has clearly changed.

The Raskin letter

On April 10, 2026, Rep. Jamie Raskin, ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote to White House Physician Captain Sean Barbabella demanding:

• A comprehensive neuropsychological assessment including a formal cognitive screening instrument
• Completion before April 25
• Full public disclosure of the results
• Barbabella's testimony before Congress on the findings

Raskin's characterization in the letter:

"We have indisputably entered the realm of profound medical difficulty and concern."

Raskin separately introduced a 10-page bill to establish a 17-member commission authorized by Section 4 of the 25th Amendment — the dormant constitutional mechanism for removing a president who is "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office." Section 4 has never been invoked in U.S. history.

The polling

• 61% of Americans think Trump has become more erratic with age (Reuters/Ipsos, February 2026)
• 45% say he is "mentally sharp and able to deal with challenges" — down from 54% in 2023
• Trump is already the oldest president ever inaugurated and approaches his 80th birthday in June

Why this NYT piece matters

For a decade the Times declined to apply the same psychiatric-concern framing to Trump that it routinely applied to Biden — a pattern widely criticized as "sane-washing." Peter Baker is the Times' senior White House correspondent; his feature is not opinion. It's a news piece aggregating what the paper's sources, the polling, the defectors, and the president's own words make impossible to continue ignoring.

The White House's response follows the familiar template: Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed critics, Trump attacked the reporters, and the White House physician has not — as of publication — agreed to any independent cognitive testing. Raskin's April 25 deadline will pass without compliance. The 25th Amendment commission bill has no path in a Republican-controlled House.

The mechanism isn't going to engage. But the diagnosis is on the record — from Trump's own lawyers, his own former press secretary, his movement's loudest voices, the country's paper of record, and 6 in 10 Americans. The question the NYT finally asked out loud is the one the last year of events has been answering on its own.